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State of Wonder by Ann Patchett - review

I n the disenchanted millennial world, the American search for wonder centres on the very large and the unimaginably small. At one pole, there's the globe as playground, the hunt through the shrinking wildernesses for whatever magic may somehow lie hidden beyond the totalising reach of GPS. At the other extreme, there's the seething world below eye level, the microscopic life of cells and bacteria. Ann Patchett's sixth novel, State of Wonder , merges the two kingdoms in the story of a pharmacologist, Marina Singh, who travels into the Amazonian jungle to spend time with the mysterious Lakashi tribe.

Marina's personal motivation for travelling to Brazil is to find out what happened to her colleague, Anders Eckman, who evidently died making the same trip before her; but her professional duty is to report back on research being carried out by Annick Swenson, who happens to be Singh's former professor. Swenson is an ethnobiologist turned gynaecologist turned immunologist who is committed to keeping the Lakashi's secrets. Fierce and driven, she refuses to communicate with her employer about the years she has spent putatively investigating why the Lakashi women are able to bear children into their 70s.

Patchett's novels typically derive their narrative energy from unlikely romantic entanglements that slowly unravel under the pressures of life. In her first novel, 1992's The Patron Saint of Liars , Rose is more than 20 years younger than her second husband, but the cause of their marriage's long dark night is really their shared fidelity to a code of silence. State of Wonder echoes the asymmetries of that book in the emotional complexity that frames Marina's journey. Like Rose, Marina is in a relationship with a significantly older man – at 60, Jim Fox, her boss at the pharmaceutical company, is 18 years older than she is – and their relationship is marked by silences, with both "too fundamentally alone in their thoughts to stay with the other".

Their silence has several functions, since wonder can mean uncertainty as well as awe, and through the quiet, Marina's deeper confusions are about herself. She works in statin development, the field of cholesterol management that relies on drugs known as reductase inhibitors, but her inhibitions extend beyond the professional realm. For much of the book she is a case study in repression, rarely entertaining her emotions on any deep level. When her first marriage ends, Marina wants to cry, but decides there isn't time. And the fact that she never manages to complete a phase of her journey without losing her luggage seems to be a clue to her emotional state. Patchett has built novels around emotionally sealed characters before – in the Orange prize-winning Bel Canto , for instance, the Japanese translator Gen suspects he has "the soul of a machine", but his repression is balanced by our access to the minds of other characters, whereas throughout State of Wonder we stay close to Marina's consciousness.

But if Marina is elusive, so too is the world in which she moves. The novel's geographic range is broad, but its visual spectrum is only intermittently enriched by its hemispheric crossings. In its broad outlines, the Amazon voyage animates a series of clichés – the insects come "down in a storm", there's a wrestling match with an anaconda, an encounter with another tribe brings poison-tipped arrows "raining down" – while the jungle itself is characterised by "screeching cries of death and slithering piles of leaves". Even when the novel seems to call for the enlarged field of reference brought on by unfamiliar sights, Patchett is strangely evasive, as when Marina tries to reflect on the jungle but thinks only of her own past: "She kept still, looking out through the top of the hammock . . . She thought about medical school, the fluorescent halls of that first hospital, the stacks of textbooks".

This would seem like a failure of the novel's imagination, but elsewhere in the book – particularly back in Marina's Minnesota – Patchett's phrasings capture the radiant details of small moments: "It wasn't a bright day but what light there was reflected off the snow and cast a wide silvery band across the breakfast table . . . Pickles leaned up against Marina now and . . . she reached down to rub the limp chamois of his ears."

Yet since the novel begins, suggestively, on 1 April, perhaps we should be wary of taking State of Wonder at face value. The inhibited central character and the relative descriptive restraint free Patchett to concentrate on larger metaphysical questions. Just as Bel Canto 's siege unstitches the old parameters – time, language, class – that govern the characters' lives, so the jungle in State of Wonder is a space in which the calendar, medical ethics and capitalist economics are suspended and then sliced open for further consideration. As such – and despite Marina's Indian ancestry – the southern hemisphere serves to highlight the way the northern hemisphere works, rather than existing as a place in itself.

State of Wonder is heavy with literary parallels (to Henry James, to Greek myth), but in this respect the strongest links are to Heart of Darkness , a novel that Patchett substantially rewrites, with Conrad's male text repopulated with female characters (Swenson is this book's Kurtz). It lacks the developed emotional core of Patchett's earlier books, but it is her most mature work to date, a novel that tries to be more alive to the nerve ends of philosophical life than to the simpler machinery of character motivation.

• Ann Patchett

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STATE OF WONDER

by Ann Patchett ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2011

Thrilling, disturbing and moving in equal measures—even better than Patchett’s breakthrough Bel Canto (2001).

A pharmacologist travels into the Amazonian heart of darkness in this spellbinder from bestselling author Patchett ( Run , 2007, etc.).

Marina Singh is dispatched from the Vogel pharmaceutical company to Brazil to find out what happened to her colleague Anders Eckman, whose death was announced in a curt letter from Annick Swenson. Anders had been sent to check on Dr. Swenson’s top-secret research project among the Lakashi tribe, whose women continue to bear children into their 60s and 70s. If a fertility drug can be derived from whatever these women are ingesting, the potential rewards are so enormous that Swenson has been pursuing her work for years with scant oversight from Vogel; the company doesn’t even know exactly where she is in the Amazon. Marina, who went into pharmacology after making a disastrous mistake as an obstetrics resident under Dr. Swenson’s supervision, really doesn’t want to see this intimidating woman again, but she feels an obligation to her friend Anders and his grief-stricken wife. So she goes to Manaus, seeking clues to Dr. Swenson’s location in the jungle. By the time the doctor turns up unexpectedly, Patchett has skillfully crafted a portrait from Marina’s memories and subordinates’ comments that gives Swenson the dark eminence of Joseph Conrad’s Mr. Kurtz. Engaged like Kurtz in godlike pursuits among the natives, Swenson is performing some highly unorthodox experiments, the ramifications of which have even more possibilities than Vogel imagines. Indeed, the multiple and highly dramatic developments that ensue once Marina gets to the Lakashi village might seem ridiculous, if Patchett had not created such credible characters and a dreamlike milieu in which anything seems possible. Nail-biting action scenes include a young boy’s near-mortal crushing by a 15-foot anaconda, whose head Marina lops off with a machete; they’re balanced by contemplative moments that give this gripping novel spiritual and metaphysical depth, right down to the final startling plot twist.

Pub Date: June 7, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-06-204980-3

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011

LITERARY FICTION

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by Ann Patchett

THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD

by Claire Lombardo ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019

Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet...

Four Chicago sisters anchor a sharp, sly family story of feminine guile and guilt.

Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. In the opening scene, Liza Sorenson, daughter No. 3, flirts with a groomsman at her sister’s wedding. “There’s four of you?” he asked. “What’s that like?” Her retort: “It’s a vast hormonal hellscape. A marathon of instability and hair products.” Thus begins a story bristling with a particular kind of female intel. When Wendy, the oldest, sets her sights on a mate, she “made sure she left her mark throughout his house—soy milk in the fridge, box of tampons under the sink, surreptitious spritzes of her Bulgari musk on the sheets.” Turbulent Wendy is the novel’s best character, exuding a delectable bratty-ness. The parents—Marilyn, all pluck and busy optimism, and David, a genial family doctor—strike their offspring as impossibly happy. Lombardo levels this vision by interspersing chapters of the Sorenson parents’ early lean times with chapters about their daughters’ wobbly forays into adulthood. The central story unfurls over a single event-choked year, begun by Wendy, who unlatches a closed adoption and springs on her family the boy her stuffy married sister, Violet, gave away 15 years earlier. (The sisters improbably kept David and Marilyn clueless with a phony study-abroad scheme.) Into this churn, Lombardo adds cancer, infidelity, a heart attack, another unplanned pregnancy, a stillbirth, and an office crush for David. Meanwhile, youngest daughter Grace perpetrates a whopper, and “every day the lie was growing like mold, furring her judgment.” The writing here is silky, if occasionally overwrought. Still, the deft touches—a neighborhood fundraiser for a Little Free Library, a Twilight character as erotic touchstone—delight. The class calibrations are divine even as the utter apolitical whiteness of the Sorenson world becomes hard to fathom.

Pub Date: June 25, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-385-54425-2

Page Count: 544

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019

LITERARY FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP

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NORMAL PEOPLE

by Sally Rooney ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2019

Absolutely enthralling. Read it.

A young Irish couple gets together, splits up, gets together, splits up—sorry, can't tell you how it ends!

Irish writer Rooney has made a trans-Atlantic splash since publishing her first novel, Conversations With Friends , in 2017. Her second has already won the Costa Novel Award, among other honors, since it was published in Ireland and Britain last year. In outline it's a simple story, but Rooney tells it with bravura intelligence, wit, and delicacy. Connell Waldron and Marianne Sheridan are classmates in the small Irish town of Carricklea, where his mother works for her family as a cleaner. It's 2011, after the financial crisis, which hovers around the edges of the book like a ghost. Connell is popular in school, good at soccer, and nice; Marianne is strange and friendless. They're the smartest kids in their class, and they forge an intimacy when Connell picks his mother up from Marianne's house. Soon they're having sex, but Connell doesn't want anyone to know and Marianne doesn't mind; either she really doesn't care, or it's all she thinks she deserves. Or both. Though one time when she's forced into a social situation with some of their classmates, she briefly fantasizes about what would happen if she revealed their connection: "How much terrifying and bewildering status would accrue to her in this one moment, how destabilising it would be, how destructive." When they both move to Dublin for Trinity College, their positions are swapped: Marianne now seems electric and in-demand while Connell feels adrift in this unfamiliar environment. Rooney's genius lies in her ability to track her characters' subtle shifts in power, both within themselves and in relation to each other, and the ways they do and don't know each other; they both feel most like themselves when they're together, but they still have disastrous failures of communication. "Sorry about last night," Marianne says to Connell in February 2012. Then Rooney elaborates: "She tries to pronounce this in a way that communicates several things: apology, painful embarrassment, some additional pained embarrassment that serves to ironise and dilute the painful kind, a sense that she knows she will be forgiven or is already, a desire not to 'make a big deal.' " Then: "Forget about it, he says." Rooney precisely articulates everything that's going on below the surface; there's humor and insight here as well as the pleasure of getting to know two prickly, complicated people as they try to figure out who they are and who they want to become.

Pub Date: April 16, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-984-82217-8

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Hogarth

Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019

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by Sally Rooney

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Book Review: 'State Of Wonder'

Alan Cheuse

A new novel from Ann Patchett, called State of Wonder , is set in the Amazon jungle where a drug has been found that can keep women fertile into their 70s.

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

Now a piece of literary fiction about a medical mystery deep in the Amazonian jungle. It's the latest novel from Ann Patchett called "State of Wonder."

Alan Cheuse has our review.

ALAN CHEUSE: The set-up for Patchett's ultimately quite attractive plot is a bit slow. There's a drug that allows women to become pregnant into their 70s and beyond. Finding the essence of that drug is the goal of research performed deep in the Amazon delta by an elusive physician named Annick Swenson.

The big Minnesota drug company sponsoring Dr. Swenson's research sends a company doctor down to ascertain the state of her progress. And he reportedly dies of fever. The company next sends the dead doctor's lab partner, who's also a former medical student of the recalcitrant Dr. Swenson.

This doctor is an Indian-American named Marina Singh. She flies to the Amazonian town of Manaus and eventually heads into the jungly territory of the Amazon.

So the set-up is slow, but the Amazon setting is something Patchett does rather marvelously. She gives us the jungle and its flora and fauna, especially its bugs, in all of its fascinating and worrisome reality. She makes us feel quite at home among the tribe whose women bear children late into life.

Marina, the lab doc, has her problems living in the jungle. She butts heads with her old medical professor and at one point battles a huge anaconda. All of this works beautifully against the background of the unfolding loyalties and rivalries among the various researchers at the tribal grounds where grows the so-called Martin tree that may be at the root of all the late-life fertility.

The book is serious, but also so pleasurable that you hope it won't end. This jungle may bug the characters but it's not so hard on the reader.

NORRIS: The book is "State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett. Our reviewer, Alan Cheuse, teaches writing at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Copyright © 2011 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

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Book Reviews

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett: Book Review

Synopsis from GoodReads :

Award-winning “New York Times”-bestselling author Ann Patchett ( Bel Canto , The Magician’s Assistant ) returns with a provocative novel of morality and miracles, science and sacrifice set in the Amazon rainforest–a gripping adventure story and a profound look at the difficult choices we make in the name of discovery and love. In a narrative replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, scientific miracles, and spiritual transformations, State of Wonder presents a world of stunning surprise and danger, rich in emotional resonance and moral complexity. As Dr. Marina Singh embarks upon an uncertain odyssey into the insect-infested Amazon, she will be forced to surrender herself to the lush but forbidding world that awaits within the jungle. Charged with finding her former mentor Dr. Annick Swenson, a researcher who has disappeared while working on a valuable new drug, she will have to confront her own memories of tragedy and sacrifice as she journeys into the unforgiving heart of darkness. Stirring and luminous, State of Wonder is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss beneath the rain forest’s jeweled canopy

It’s been a while since I read this, but I actually remember quite a bit of it. That’s a good sign. Details of books generally leave me pretty quickly. Still, bullet points will probably say it best.

• I wasn’t particularly fond of Marina but I don’t remember why.
• It was very slow to get started. Once Marina gets to Brazil, I didn’t think she was ever going to leave that first dirty, hot, hopeless town. Ever.
• The beautiful young people she finds to help her were irritating as hell.
• The drug that Dr. Swenson was working on left me sending stink-eye stares in the general direction I think my parents live in. “Don’t even think about it, Mama. Just don’t.” (I know you’re reading this and wondering if your feelings should be hurt. It’s nothing bad. Ask me about it and you’ll understand. You’ll be shooting stink-eye glances at Granny.)
• I read this just weeks after starting a job in clinical research. After all of my brand-new training in Good Clinical Practice and Human Subject Protection and all that, I was a little tickled to read something that I understood from that point of view, at least a little, and horrified by how all of those regulations were thrown out the window by this group of fictional scientists.
• Snakes. Snakes! Oh my gosh, possibly the most freaking-Jennifer-out snake scene I have ever read in my life! *shuddershuddershuddershudder*
• Once it got going, it was a page turner. My sister compared the plot to something Michael Crichton would write, and she loves his work. I can see where she’s coming from.
• The plot did fall apart a little bit toward the end. There was simply too much going on.

Let’s call this a thinking-person’s adventure story. I enjoyed it overall and recommend it if you’re looking for something of that description.

Read an excerpt .

Find author Ann Patchett on her website .

Buy State of Wonder at

If you’re anywhere around Asheville, NC, Ms. Patchett will be speaking at UNCA in conjunction with Malaprop’s on November 5, 2013.

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s , my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books . I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site. My opinions are completely my own.

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I love Michael Crichton, so I might have to give this a try 🙂 I hate when I go to write a review and don't remember the book any more, but I think you did a great job dealing with that!

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State of Wonder

By ann patchett, a journey into the heart of the amazon.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett ( Bel Canto, The Magician’s Assistant ) tells the story of a doctor, Mariana, who is sent to Brazil, at the behest of the pharmaceutical company she works for, to locate an elusive scientist who was once her teacher, a Dr. Annika Swenson. Dr. Swenson has, for many years, been given a blank check to research and develop a new, groundbreaking drug involving female fertility. The key to her research is hidden in the secrets of the Lakashi tribe with whom she has been living among in this time. When the company receives news that another doctor sent to locate and monitor Dr. Swenson has died in the jungle, Mariana is sent in to check up the progress of the research the company has invested liberally and heavily in.

The story is in some ways reminiscent of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness . Whereas Conrad’s Marlow is sent into the Congo to check up on the egomaniacal Kurtz, Patchett’s Mariana is sent into the jungles of the Amazon after the renown Dr. Swenson. There, she discovers a world of anacondas, tribal villages, shamans and lots and lots of wilderness. And like Marlow, pursuing her goal means facing up to uncomfortable truths.

As Mariana ventures forward, closer to her goal but also deeper into the jungle, she finds her past crashing upon her present. The anti-malarial pills she takes leave her screaming at night with nightmares of her father who left her family to move back to India; and locating her former medical school instructor dredges up and forces her to confront an old memory from a medical specialty she once abandoned.

I enjoyed Patchett’s Bel Canto and was expecting similar from this novel. Whereas Bel Canto was sweet but maybe a little divorced from reality, State of Wonder replaces that sweetness with a certain amount of grittiness and something a little more grounded. However, Bel Canto also had a charm to it that State of Wonder seems to be missing.

I thought it was interesting in parts, but it only seems to skim the surface of being substantive. Whereas Conrad’s Heart of Darkness , dives deep and hard into the ugly core of its story, Patchett’s novel kicks up some dirt and concludes. Ultimately, I finished the book without being particularly moved, though, like I said, I did enjoy some parts of it. With the exception of a few sections, I didn’t find it too difficult to stay interested. There is a fair amount of discussion of medical ethics in there, which some may find interesting.

I think for lovers of literary fiction, you might try giving it a shot anyway and perhaps something in it will speak to you moreso than it did me. It’s certainly not a bad book. Also, anyone interested in medical ethics might like it, though I didn’t think it said anything too earth-shattering, but I guess it depends on where you’re coming from prior to having read it. It’s one of those books I feel pretty sure won’t stick with me, but it wasn’t time wasted either. I’d probably recommend to give it a pass, unless you’re curious, in which case, what the hell, give it a shot.

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The Power of Ethics and Exploration in Ann Patchett’s “State of Wonder”

“State of Wonder” is a novel by Ann Patchett that was first published in 2011. The story follows Marina Singh, a scientist who travels to the Amazon rainforest to investigate the death of her colleague and retrieve data from his research on a fertility drug being developed by their pharmaceutical company. As Marina navigates the unfamiliar and dangerous terrain of the jungle, she encounters a host of characters who challenge her worldview and force her to confront the ethical implications of their work.

Patchett’s writing style is known for its lyricism, attention to detail, and empathetic characterization. She has won numerous awards for her previous works, including the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction.

In this article, we will examine the major themes, symbols, and characters of “State of Wonder,” as well as analyze Patchett’s writing style and the critical reception of the novel. Through this exploration, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the significance of “State of Wonder” in contemporary literature and the enduring legacy of Ann Patchett’s writing.

State of Wonder Plot Summary and Characters

Themes and symbols of book state of wonder, style and language, state of wonder novel reception and criticism.

“State of Wonder” is a complex and multi-layered novel that weaves together various plot threads and explores the inner lives of its characters. The story is set in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, where Marina Singh is sent by her pharmaceutical company to investigate the death of her colleague, Anders Eckman, and retrieve data from his research on a fertility drug being developed by the company.

As Marina delves deeper into the mysteries of the jungle, she encounters a cast of characters who challenge her beliefs and push her to confront the ethical implications of their work. These characters include:

• Dr. Annick Swenson: The brilliant but enigmatic scientist who oversees the research project in the jungle and holds the key to unlocking the secrets of the fertility drug.
• Mr. Fox: The CEO of the pharmaceutical company who sends Marina on her mission to the jungle and has a complicated history with Dr. Swenson.
• Easter: A deaf boy who lives with the Lakashi tribe in the jungle and serves as Marina’s guide and translator.
• Dr. Nkomo: A doctor who works with Dr. Swenson in the jungle and becomes a key ally to Marina in her quest to uncover the truth.

Another important theme in the novel is the ethical implications of scientific research, particularly in the context of developing new drugs and treatments. Through the character of Dr. Swenson and her work on the fertility drug, Patchett raises questions about the balance between scientific progress and the potential harm that can be caused by unchecked experimentation.

The novel also features a number of symbols that add layers of meaning to the story. One of the most prominent symbols is the jungle itself, which represents both the beauty and the danger of the natural world, as well as the mysteries that lie hidden within it. The fertility drug is another important symbol, representing both the promise of new life and the potential for harm and destruction.

Overall, the themes and symbols in “State of Wonder” work together to create a complex and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition and the ways in which we interact with the world around us.

Ann Patchett’s writing style is characterized by its lyricism, attention to detail, and empathetic characterization. In “State of Wonder,” she uses language and imagery to evoke the lush and dangerous world of the Amazon rainforest, as well as the inner lives of her characters.

Some specific elements of Patchett’s style and language in “State of Wonder” include:

• Metaphors and similes: Patchett uses vivid and often surprising metaphors and similes to describe the natural world and the emotions of her characters. For example, when Marina first arrives in the jungle, she describes the heat as “a physical presence, like a hand pressing against her chest.”
• Sensory description: Patchett pays close attention to sensory details, particularly in her descriptions of the jungle. She uses vivid and evocative language to describe the sights, sounds, smells, and textures of the natural world.
• Interior monologue: The novel features a number of passages in which characters’ thoughts and emotions are revealed through interior monologue. This technique allows Patchett to explore the inner lives of her characters in depth and to create a sense of intimacy between the reader and the characters.
• Dialogue: Patchett’s dialogue is realistic and naturalistic, with characters often interrupting and talking over one another. This creates a sense of immediacy and realism in the novel.

In terms of language and style, “State of Wonder” has been compared to other works of literature that use similar techniques to explore the intersection of science and humanity, including:

• “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley: Like “State of Wonder,” “Frankenstein” explores the ethical implications of scientific research and the ways in which science can both create and destroy.
• “The Overstory” by Richard Powers: This novel also features a deep exploration of the natural world and the complex ways in which humans interact with it.

“State of Wonder” was widely praised by critics upon its release, with many lauding Patchett’s skillful storytelling, vivid imagery, and complex characters. The novel was a finalist for the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction and was named one of the best books of the year by numerous publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Some common themes in the critical reception of “State of Wonder” include:

• The novel’s exploration of complex ethical issues surrounding scientific research, including the exploitation of indigenous populations and the responsibility of scientists to consider the potential harm of their work.
• The richness and depth of Patchett’s characterization, particularly in the character of Dr. Swenson, who is both a brilliant scientist and a deeply flawed human being.
• The evocative and immersive nature of Patchett’s prose, which transports readers to the lush and dangerous world of the Amazon rainforest.

At the same time, some critics have raised concerns about certain elements of the novel, including:

• The pacing, which some readers found slow or uneven in places.
• The portrayal of the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest, which some readers felt was reductive or overly simplistic.

“State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett is a compelling and thought-provoking novel that explores complex ethical issues surrounding scientific research, the natural world, and humanity’s place within it. Through her skillful storytelling, vivid imagery, and complex characters, Patchett creates a powerful and immersive reading experience that has captivated readers and critics alike.

Throughout this article, we have examined the key themes and plot points of “State of Wonder,” as well as the novel’s historical and literary context. We have also analyzed Patchett’s writing style and language, highlighting the techniques she uses to evoke the lush and dangerous world of the Amazon rainforest and to explore the inner lives of her characters.

In addition, we have discussed the critical reception of “State of Wonder,” including both the praise it has received for its exploration of complex ethical issues and the criticisms that have been raised about certain elements of the novel. Despite these criticisms, however, “State of Wonder” remains a powerful and influential work of literature that continues to resonate with readers today.

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Prize-winning author Ann Patchett (“Bel Canto,” “Truth and Beauty,” “The Magician’s Assistant”) once confessed that the single most important artistic influence on her work is “The Poseidon Adventure,” the 1933 Paul Gallico potboiler that was made into a classic 1970s action-adventure-disaster movie featuring Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine fighting their way out of a luxury liner capsized by a 100-foot tidal wave. Patchett explained, “[‘The Poseidon Adventure’] was the first time I saw something that made me think, Oh, that’s what plot is: you’re going along, it’s fine, then everything turns upside down; people band together, sacrifices are made, there’s passion, there’s loss, there’s a journey and at the end you cut a hole in the boat and you come into the light.”

“State of Wonder,” Patchett’s sixth novel, is a riveting variation on that tightly plotted journey from darkness to light. The novel traces the steps of 42-year-old Marina Singh, pharmacologist at the Vogel Pharmaceutical Company in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Marina makes her way to a place deep in the bowels of the jungle, “somewhere on a tributary off the Rio Negro” in Brazil, and then must fight her way back home to the bright, frozen landscape of Eden Prairie.

Marina is sent to the Amazon by Vogel Pharmaceuticals in pursuit of a rogue scientist, Dr. Annik Swenson. Dr. Swenson’s research into the miraculous post-menopausal fertility of the women of the Lakashi tribe is so valuable to Vogel that the company funds Dr. Swenson’s secret work with an open checkbook and virtually no questions asked. Only a few months earlier, Marina’s lab partner Anders Eckman was sent to the Amazon on the same mission. But Anders never returned, leaving Marina to puzzle over the announcement of his sudden death and leaving Mr. Fox, the 60-year-old suit-and-tie-wearing Vogel CEO who is also Marina’s lover, to scramble for a “plan B.” Dr. Marina Singh will be this “plan B.”

In a matter of weeks, Marina is sailing on a pontoon boat “down a river into the beating heart of nowhere”, a would-be Charlie Marlow voyaging into Conrad’s heart of darkness. Patchett’s heroine leaves her comfort zone in Eden Prairie armed with little more than the talismans of Western civilization: a volume of Henry James, a back issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and a high-tech, GPS-enabled cell phone so sophisticated that it can “make a phone call from Antarctica”. She travels to the Amazon seeking answers for herself (about the mysterious circumstances of Anders’ death and about the meaning of her own life) and information for the Vogel Pharmaceutical Company (about Dr. Swenson and her progress in the development of a revolutionary new fertility drug).

“State of Wonder” is Marina’s interior, psychological journey back in time to confront her past, in the shape of her former medical school professor Dr. Swenson; and a vivid account of her travels through snake-infested rivers, malarial swamps and “thick walls of breathing vegetation”.

Unfortunately, if somewhat predictably, Marina’s luggage never makes it with her to Dr. Swenson’s remote research station in the jungle, leaving her with some serious chinks in her techno-scientific armor. This is a particular problem because the Brazil of “State of Wonder” is a perilous and threatening place. Patchett’s South American jungle is bursting with creepy-crawly people and insects, all of which pose a potentially lethal threat to the novel’s civilized scientific wayfarers. Swarms of bodies cycle anonymously through the novel and around Marina as her personal voyage unfolds. Dense clouds of insects clamor for blood, and armies of natives mass around the fluorescent lights of a storefront in a frenzy to get inside, or the lonely beam of a flashlight in the jungle. The insatiable, minimally rational and barely-human appetites that drive the indigenous people of the novel are, finally, best embodied by the tribe of sinister cannibals who keep the scientists on their toes as they hover menacingly just on the margins of the story, at least until the novel’s nail-biting eleventh hour, when Patchett propels them into position front and center.And yet, Patchett’s greatest strength, her imagination, ultimately gives shape to a host of platitudes about the primitive pleasures and dangers that lie out there in the jungle.

In “State of Wonder” Patchett writes with the confidence and authority of an author-explorer endowed with the power to imagine a universe divided into ill-mannered natives and the modern men and women from Minnesota who teach them table manners, instruct them in the art of wiping their feet before they get into bed, and train them to be docile subjects, “submitting themselves to constant weighing and measurement, allowing their menstrual cycles to be charted and their children to be pricked for blood samples”.

Unlike Marina or Dr. Swenson or Anders or any of the other figures who are temporarily transplanted from civilization to Amazonian wilderness, Patchett’s natives are only semi-human; they don’t possess civilized language, but make sounds “less like words and more like the call and answer of birds.” They swim in the river in packs with “their long throats stretched up like turtles” and they swarm in a beam of light like massive schools of oversized fish. Doomed to a life outside of the grand narratives of Western progress, left behind by the forward march of modernity, the Lakashi coexist with archaic creatures, like the “freakish brand of great white bird with a wing span of a pterodactyl” and are seemingly impervious to evolutionary change. Dr. Swensen explains, “They are an intractable race. Any progress you advance to them will be undone before your back is turned. You might as well come down here to unbend the river”. If “State of Wonder” falters, it is its tendency to rely on Western truisms about exotic lands and indigenous peoples and offer up a curiously clichead view of life beyond the knowable edges of home.

Part scientific thriller, part engaging personal odyssey, “State of Wonder” is a suspenseful jungle adventure with an unexpected ending and other assorted surprises.

Laura Ciolkowski teaches Literature at Columbia University. She is also Associate Director of the Columbia University Center for the Critical Analysis of Social Difference.

State of Wonder By Ann Patchett HarperCollins Books, 353 pages, $26.99

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State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

• Publication Date: May 8, 2012
• Genres: Fiction
• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• ISBN-10: 006204981X
• ISBN-13: 9780062049810
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Review: ‘State of Wonder’ by Ann Patchett

One Sentence Summary: A young pharmaceutical scientist heads into the heart of darkness that is the Amazonian rain forest to find her lost coworker and confront a scientist on the loose.

One Sentence Review: Anne Patchett’s beautiful writing alone is enough reason to read this book.

Why I Read It: I have a special place in my heart of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness , so hearing this one compared to it was enough to make me want to read it.

Long Review: When Dr. Marina Singh, a pharmaceutical research scientist, is sent to the jungle in search of an elusive colleague and former mentor, it looks like a lost mission. Dr. Annick Swenson is supposed to be working on a miracle fertility drug. Instead, she’s cut of communication with her funders and refuses to tell anyone where she actually is. Marina’s research partner, Anders Eckman, was sent to find Dr. Swenson first, but died before he could complete the mission. As Marina heads into the Amazon, it’s unclear what she’ll find and how she will be able to battle her own demons while dealing with complicated ethical questions and the ire of Dr. Swenson.

One of the big reasons this particular popular fiction title stood out to me was a repeated suggestion that Patchett has written the female Heart of Darkness . I mean, it’s almost impossible to read any professional review of the book and not have some reference to Joseph Conrad’s book. Even the book description from the publisher ends with the line, “It is a tale that leads the reader into the very heart of darkness, and then shows us what lies on the other side.”

In my view, that’s a good thing, since I’ve always held a special place in my heart for Heart of Darkness , but that’s not the case for everyone. While it’s possible my Heart of Darkness expertise is fading, I didn’t see much connection between the two other than the premise of the book — a person is sent into the Amazonian wilderness to search for a lost colleague and deal with someone that has, potentially, gone crazy out in the jungle.

Plot questions aside, this book is worth reading if only for Patchett’s beautiful writing. She had this way of moving back in forth in time and space, from Marina’s present to her past, from the Amazon to Minnesota to India, without ever missing a beat or leaving the reader behind. Her descriptions of people and the jungle were intense and captivating. I was drawn in throughout the entire story.

I’m not sure how I feel about the ending of the book or the questions it raised, or even, in some ways, what I thought of the book as a whole… but the writing, wow. I cannot wait to try another one of Patchett’s books to visit her beautiful prose again.

Other Reviews:   Caribousmom | Words and Peace |

If you have reviewed this book, please leave a link to the review in the comments and I will add your review to the main post. All I ask is for you to do the same to mine — thanks!

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Glad that you had a chance to read this one. I love the writing as well, and thought the story was good as well. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m glad we got to read this one as well, I liked it quite a bit.

I am reading this now and am loving it. It was a book club pick and I was hesitant because I couldn’t get through Bel Canto but this seems completely different to me.

I haven’t read Bel Canto , but I did pick up a copy while I was out shopping over the weekend. I’m curious about it now, especially since you say it’s different.

I completely agree with your review – her writing is gorgeous, and for that alone the book is worth reading. I was not fond of the ending at all. My review is here: http://www.caribousmom.com/2011/10/18/state-of-wonder-book-review/

I loved her writing, it was just so beautiful.

I read this book last summer and enjoyed it very much. At the same time, I listened to Bel Canto, so I reviewed them together. I think Patchett has a special thing for endings: http://wordsandpeace.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/bell-canto-and-state-of-wonder/

I don’t know what I thought of the ending… it didn’t seem like much closure, but I’m not sure if that matters much.

lots of other bloggers make a big deal about her conclusion, I mean, they usually say it’s lousy and they hate it. But I thought it was good in its originality, same thing for Bel Canto

I didn’t really hate it… I just wasn’t sure what to think. I have read lots of people who didn’t like it at all. I’m really curious about Bel Canto though.

I’ve never read Heart of Darkness but I do love Prachett’s writing, so am adding this one to my list.

I hope you like it!

This one is high on my wishlist and I have a gift card to burn, so it’s a good possibility I’ll be reading this in the near future.

Ooo, awesome. I thought it was beautifully written, easy to get drawn into.

I thought the writing was gorgeous, but I wasn’t crazy about the ending – it just seemed out of character for Marina. I also thought the middle of the book dragged a bit.

Yeah, I don’t know about the ending either. It seemed abrupt, perhaps, or just a little off.

I’ve had this one in my bookcase for a while and keep meaning to grab it, and I’m ashamed to say I’ve never read Heart Of Darkness ! I remember seeing it on our optional summer reading lists in high school, but I always chose something else.

Heart of Darkness is, I think, an acquired taste. It’s a very strange little book, but it has a special place in my heart.

Sometimes it is enough to read a book for the language alone.

For sure. Beautiful writing is key for me.

I loved this book too! The ending was a bit meh to me, but other than that, it was just beautiful!

Yes, totally agree. Her writing was just stellar.

I still can’t decide whether or not I want to read this. I even sat down with it in the bookstore for awhile and ended up leaving it behind. It didn’t grab me, but I’m still a little curious. I’m sure I’ll get to it, just not any time soon.

The beginning could have been a little bit slow, but I did think it picked up. And like I said, the writing was just gorgeous.

Sounds like the writing is well worth the ride!

Absolutely!

I enjoyed this book too! http://leeswammes.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/book-review-state-of-wonder-by-ann-patchett/

I thought the events towards the end were rather far-fetched. But I read this book less than 6 months ago and already I’m considering re-reading it, as I did enjoy it a lot.

I might reread this one, just to see if some of the plot pulls together better on a second read.

Seeing this book around has made me think I am going to have to check it out one of these days.

I hope you can give it a shot!

Thinking about the ending and whether this novel is like Heart of Darkness (I hadn’t read that before I read it, but react as you do, that it’s a surface similarity) makes me like the ending better. It’s a sort of satiric ending, I think, made to require the reader to make up her mind about how a modern woman should act in a first world country, based on what Marina learned in the jungle.

Hmmm, that’s a really good point. That makes a lot of sense. Smart as always, Jeanne 🙂

I haven’t read Heart of Darkness, but I know what it’s about and it’s major themes, and like you, I don’t really see how many/any of them apply to this novel. I think critics got overly influenced by the similar settings and so just ran with it, but I think this novel is really about other things altogether. I didn’t think it was perfect, but I did admire Patchett’s storytelling so I’m sure I’ll read some of her other works in the future as well.

Yes, I think it’s very much the setting, although the plot does have some similarities too (the whole heading into the jungle thing). I loved the way she was able to tell so many stories at the same time.

I with Jill on this one. It sounds like a great book and I’ll probably get to it someday but not soon. Great review.

I feel that way about quite a few books 🙂

I felt the same way – I like her writing even though this is not my genre, but her writing is very atmospheric. I don’t know how I feel about the ending either. Here’s my review: http://mentalfoodie.blogspot.com/2011/06/book-review-state-of-wonder-novel-by.html

Yes, atmospheric is exactly the right word for her writing.

I was impressed by the writing too, and enjoyed the book far more than I expected to. I am not normally sustained by beautiful writing. But I’m glad to hear you say that this doesn’t have as much in common with Heart of Darkness as everyone’s been saying! I haven’t read Heart of Darkness, and am not a hundred percent sure I want to, and I’m relieved to hear that my State of Wonder reading experience wasn’t necessarily damaged by that omission in my reading history.

Nah, I don’t think so. Maybe if I reread Heart of Darkness I’d think differently, but being dull on the details didn’t seem to hurt my reading experience any.

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Book Review: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

This review for State of Wonder by  Ann Patchett has a couple of spoilers

I read the novel by Ann Patchett, State of Wonder , a few years back. I didn’t know anything about the book when I read it, a friend loaned it to me, and since I enjoyed Bel Canto , Patchett’s most well-known work, I decided to give it a read, and I’m glad I did. 

It is a fun read that takes place in South America’s steamy jungles. In a  place where discoveries can still be made. It also touches on a topic at the forefront of my mind at the time, fertility. But I am getting ahead of myself; let’s start from the beginning.

State of Wonder : The Plot

The story centers around a woman named Marina, who is a biochemical researcher for a sizeable pharmaceutical company. She is a rather uninteresting woman who does rather uninteresting work with cholesterol. She is neither a wife nor a mother and has centered her life around her career. In the first pages, she is thrust into an adventure in South America when her lab research partner and work-husband goes missing in the jungle where he has been doing research. She is sent to find out what happened and collect any research that he has left behind. 

Marina embarks on this journey and meets interesting characters along the way. Some could argue she finds herself through it all. It’s a storyboard template that was a pleasant summer read. The description of the jungle is so vivid it becomes its own character. Patchett’s story realistically describes the relentless heat, the supersized bugs, and the steamy breathlessness of the jungle. She is, obviously, a master of her craft.

As the novel progresses, Marina eventually finds her way to the remote location where her research partner went missing. She learns the details of what is being studied, and it is something that could change the world and the role of women in society.

The remote tribe has a secret where fertility can be extended. The female tribe members instinctively and ritualistic expose themselves to a natural component. It’s a thick bark at the base of a jungle tree, that allows them to continue fertility well into old age. 

While the book mostly focuses on Marina’s story and the fun descriptions of the cast of characters she meets and her fish out of water scenario as a city girl in the jungle, this fertility aspect caught my attention more than the bland protagonist. The book concludes with Marina finding a new sense of self and provides a firm conclusion that satisfies the reader.

But for me, the book raised questions about fertility that had been percolating in my mind. Questions that a 41-year-old woman might be considering as the door to her fertile years start to close. Questions, like, if we can continue having babies into old age, should we? 

I’m sure many women and older moms have focused on this question. The answer is different for everyone. But collectively, we are seeing the age of first-time moms going up, and it’s not as unusual as it once was to see older moms.

In the book, the component that can extend fertility is researched and sought after by scientists with dollars signs in their eyes, imagining bottling and selling this to a woman in the later stages of life. These desperate women thought they had missed their chance, a vulnerable group who would pay top dollar for this miracle drug. 

Patchett’s novel brought up many questions; Would this fertility extender be a great discovery? Would women buy it? What would be the ripple effect on society of a generation of older mothers, not just in their forties but in their fifties and sixties having babies? 

Reflections on My Own Fertility Journey

This wonderfully crafted novel gave me pause. It is harder being an older mother, and maybe that’s why nature doesn’t want us to have babies late in life. Nature knows that the mother instinctively does the child-rearing. Maybe that’s why men can impregnate well into their 70s because they don’t bear the weight literally and figuratively of the pregnancy and upbringing. 

Likewise, these themes that State of Wonder brought up resonated with me because I had my second child at 42 just a month shy of 43. I conceived naturally, but the toll it took on my body was much more than I expected. Being a mother is challenging, and being an older mother adds another layer of exhaustion. Of course, any mother would tell you it’s worth it.

In the end, I found the book a great read and a chance to explore the idea of fertility and parenthood.

Have you read it? What did you think?

Keri Anne Johnson

Keri has been teaching English and ESL for the past twenty years. She loves learning about new places and perspectives. She is an ex-expat and a mother to a teenager and toddler. She is slowly readjusting to life in the Pacific Northwest after twenty years in Mexico.

Hi, I’m Keri. I am a freelance writer and ghostwriter. As a ghostwriter, I create an authentic voice for others.  As a writer, I write about parenting, food, travel, health, books, and education. I have excellent research skills and experience writing content in all niches. To learn more about me check out my About page .

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A Novel of Lost Daughters and Waylaid Lives

Prison, pregnancies and other operatic turns propel Caroline Leavitt’s latest book, “Days of Wonder.”

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DAYS OF WONDER, by Caroline Leavitt

When the unfairness of life overwhelms you, does it bring out your grit and resolve, or send you down a rabbit hole of grievance and desperation?

Such is the crossroads facing three deeply damaged people in Caroline Leavitt’s 12th novel, “Days of Wonder”: Ella Fitchburg, newly released from prison after being convicted of trying to poison her wealthy boyfriend’s father; her teenage love, Jude, a victim of domestic abuse who’s lugging his own millstone of guilt; and Ella’s mother, Helen, who was cruelly cast out of her Hasidic Jewish community as a pregnant teenager.

Ella, too, is pregnant when she begins her 25-year sentence, but is pressed to give the baby girl up for adoption. Freed nearly two decades early thanks to a governor’s intervention, Ella, now 22, tracks down the child, who has been adopted and named Carla, and hastily moves from Brooklyn to Ann Arbor, Mich., to be close to her — without disclosing her real identity to her daughter’s new parents. A cross between Sylvia Plath’s sardonic Esther Greenwood and Allison McKenzie from “Peyton Place” (the Mia Farrow iteration), Ella mostly covets security and a bigger place in the world, clinging to a deluded dream of her, Jude, Carla and a life they can never have.

All along we feel Ella’s deep longing, her pain at having been so spectacularly cheated by life. Alas, that doesn’t prevent her from coming off as a creepy stalker: She hides in a back booth at the bar where her daughter’s new dad works, pops up like a disturbed jack-in-the-box to sneak cellphone pictures of Carla and anonymously leaves knitted mittens in the family mailbox.

We’re also asked to sustain some serious suspension of disbelief. Despite a closed adoption, Ella quickly discovers her daughter’s location when a lawyer sloppily exposes a file with the family’s address; Ella meets Carla after the little girl’s errant ball miraculously rolls in front of her feet at a playground, a trope for the ages. Perhaps most ludicrous: With zero experience Ella lands a job as a freelance “Dear Abby”-style columnist for a weekly newspaper in Ann Arbor and is able to support herself on it. That’s worthy of the same eyeroll we collectively delivered when Carrie Bradshaw was somehow able to afford all those Cosmos and pricey shoes.

Leavitt is clearly in her element here: Her previous novels are a soapy collection of women experiencing pain, regret and, ultimately, redemption. But the task of untangling the characters’ myriad secrets and the foggy mystery that binds Ella, Jude and Helen together is harrowing, and leads to some cutting of corners (Ella’s alacrity at becoming best friends with Carla’s adoptive mother seems a tad convenient). It also results in a denouement that feels as overly tidy and soulless as a sample home.

While it moves intermittently between the trio’s individual story lines, the narrative is largely driven by Ella — Jude and Helen seem to serve as more of a supporting cast, present to both reflect her pain and mark the road of broken promises she’s trudged. The sometimes clichéd plotting is helped by Leavitt’s graceful prose: Ella sees her mother as “a dry, twisted sponge that could no longer expand”; falling for the high school dreamboat Jude, she finds herself out of her depth in his social circle, not knowing “how to dress in the casually-mussed way of the teenage elite”; upon release from prison, she threads her way through a throng of reporters, “their voices like thorns.”

The novel’s title is a tad misleading; the book is far less about wondrous days than about the tenacity required to survive life’s bad ones. Ultimately — and despite enough melodrama for “General Hospital” — it heralds the power of steady perseverance, sturdy faith and the raw restorative power of love.

DAYS OF WONDER | By Caroline Leavitt | Algonquin | 320 pp. | $29

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State of Wonder: A Novel Paperback – Large Print, June 7, 2011

Purchase options and add-ons.

"Expect miracles when you read Ann Patchett's fiction."— New York Times Book Review

Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett returns with a provocative and assured novel of morality and miracles, science and sacrifice set in the Amazon rainforest. Infusing the narrative with the same ingenuity and emotional urgency that pervaded her acclaimed previous novels Bel Canto , Taft , Run , The Magician's Assistant , and The Patron Saint of Liars , Patchett delivers an enthrallingly innovative tale of aspiration, exploration, and attachment in State of Wonder —a gripping adventure story and a profound look at the difficult choices we make in the name of discovery and love.

• Print length 544 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Harper Large Print
• Publication date June 7, 2011
• Dimensions 6 x 1.36 x 9 inches
• ISBN-10 0062065211
• ISBN-13 978-0062065216
• Lexile measure 990L
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

“An engaging, consummately told tale.” — New York Times

“Emotionally lucid. . . . Patchett is at her lyrical best when she catalogues the jungle.” — The New Yorker

“This is surely the smartest, most exciting novel of the summer.” — Washington Post

“The Amazon setting is something Patchett does rather marvelously.… The book is serious, but also so pleasurable that you hope it won’t end.” — NPR

“Outlandishly entertaining…[with] a brilliantly constructed plot.” — Elle

“Packs a textbook’s worth of ethical conundrums into a smart and tidily delivered story. . . . Ms. Patchett presents an alluring interplay between civilization and wilderness, between aid and exploitation.” — Wall Street Journal

“The large canvas of sweeping moral issues, both personal and global, comes to life through careful attention to details, however seemingly mundane—from ill-fitting shoes and mosquito bites to a woman tenderly braiding another woman’s hair.” — O, the Oprah Magazine

“A spellbinder from bestselling author Patchett. . . . Thrilling, disturbing and moving in equal measures—even better than Patchett’s breakthrough Bel Canto .” — Kirkus Reviews  (starred review)

“A superbly rendered novel. . . . Patchett’s portrayal is as wonderful as it is frightening and foreign. Patchett exhibits an extraordinary ability to bring the horrors and the wonders of the Amazon jungle to life, and her singular characters are wonderfully drawn. . . . Powerful and captivating.” — Library Journal  (starred review)

“A thrilling new novel. . . . The world imagined in this novel is unusually vivid. . . . Reading State of Wonder is a sensory experience, and even after it’s over you’ll keep hearing the sounds of insects, and your own head will still be hot.” —

“A thrilling new novel. . . . The world imagined in this novel is unusually vivid. . . . Reading State of Wonder is a sensory experience, and even after it’s over you’ll keep hearing the sounds of insects, and your own head will still be hot.” — MORE Magazine

“Patchett makes the jungle jump off the page…This is Patchett’s best effort since The Patron Saint of Liars and, yes, that includes Bel Canto ” — Shelf Awareness

“Extraordinary. . . . Is there nothing the prodigiously talented Ann Patchett can’t do? . . . Patchett’s last knockout pages proceed full-speed ahead, with more twists and turns and trachery than the Amazon River. Nothing is as it seems, and the ending is as shocking as it’s satisfying.” — Boston Globe

From the Back Cover

Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a Minnesota pharmaceutical company, is sent to the Amazon to find her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have disappeared while working on a new drug. No one knows where Dr. Swenson is, and the last person sent to find her died before completing his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey in hopes of finding answers.

Now in her seventies, the uncompromising Dr. Swenson dominates her research team and the natives with the force of an imperial ruler. But while she is as threatening as anything the jungle has to offer, the greatest sacrifices are those Dr. Swenson asks of herself, and will ultimately ask of Marina, who finds she is still unable to live up to her teacher’s expectations.

Replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, and cannibals, State of Wonder is a tale that leads you into the very heart of darkness, and then shows what lies on the other side.

About the Author

Ann Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Lake , works of nonfiction, and children's books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner, the Women's Prize in the UK, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Large Print; Large type / Large print edition (June 7, 2011)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0062065211
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062065216
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 990L
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.32 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.36 x 9 inches
• #10,755 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
• #13,741 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
• #45,305 in Literary Fiction (Books)

About the author

Ann patchett.

Ann Patchett is the author of six novels, including Bel Canto, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction. She writes for the New York Times Magazine, Elle, GQ, the Financial Times, the Paris Review and Vogue. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Hulu's 'Under the Bridge' will make you wonder where your children are

The kids are definitely not all right.

In Hulu's "Under the Bridge," based on the 2005 true-crime book by Rebecca Godfrey, the innocence of childhood is lost amid violence, lies and tragedy. It's the story of Reena Virk, a 14-year-old Canadian girl who was murdered in 1997 by her peers, and a harrowing narrative of children hurting each other, committing the ultimate act of cruelty and bloodshed for reasons we'll never really know.

In its heavily fictionalized retelling, "Under the Bridge" (streaming Thursdays, ★★ out of four) starts as an emotional, affecting drama that avoids most of the clichés of true crime . But it slowly falls apart in a second half that raises more questions than it answers and opens too many new threads while leaving most of them hanging. While its eight episodes are clearly aiming for lofty, vital storytelling, it's only the first four that manage to move you. And it's a shame because so much of this story demands to be heard.

Reena (Vritika Gupta) is an angst-ridden, troubled teenager who doesn't fit in near her British Columbia town and hates her Jehovah's Witness mother Suman (Archie Panjabi). Drawn to a group of LA street gang-obsessed girls, Reena eventually winds up at an unfriendly party, where she is assaulted by a group of teens under a bridge. But while she walks away from that beating, her murdered body is eventually found days later.

Unraveling her case is Cam Bentland (Lily Gladstone), a local cop who immediately suspects Reena's so-called friends Josephine (Chloe Guidry), Dusty (Aiyana Goodfellow) and Kelly (Izzy G.). Writer Rebecca (Riley Keough), is also investigating, trying to befriend the teens to learn their secrets, and is eventually drawn to homeless teen Warren (Javon "Wanna" Walton), whose involvement in Reena's death isn't initially clear.

Told out of chronological order (a storytelling device in contemporary TV drama that has crossed the line from trend to tired trope), "Bridge" tells the story of the murder on multiple fronts. There's Cam and Rebecca, old friends who are often at odds as they're drawn to prosecute and protect different actors in the case; the teens after Reena's death, closing ranks and living in various states of denial and guilt; and Reena in flashbacks, who's ostracized, because of race or body type or both.

Although Gladstone and Keough are competent and appealing, Cam and Rebecca are the least interesting characters in the story, and when you know the facts of the real case, it's easy to see why. Cam is a composite character representing all of law enforcement, and the real Godfrey was not actively involved in the case as it happened. Both women feel tacked on to the better, meatier story about the capacity of violence in kids at such a young age.

Despite the tantalizing question of why 15-year-olds would commit such a heinous crime, it's impossible to discover what the show is trying to say about adolescence or violence or race. The scripts of creator Quinn Shepherd ("Not Okay") feel half-formed. Warren is severely underdeveloped at the start, even as he becomes a pivotal character by the end. Cam and Rebecca have tragic backstories with little connection to their actions in the present.

All the fault lines start to appear as the series moves into its second half. Whether hampered by the balancing act between fictionalization and the real crime or by the age-old quest to find a good ending to a story, the writers crafted four final episodes that are distinctly less engrossing, lack depth and reveal weaker characters and performances.

True crime is a crowded genre with so many cookie-cutter stories exploiting tragedies for voyeuristic films and series. To its credit, "Bridge" does its best to honor Reena and crafts a compelling story when it focuses more on her than her killers. But that's not enough to make up for the tackier, aimless later episodes.

As the title cards in the final moments reveal what happened to all the people involved in Reena's death, we're reminded we don't always get a perfect ending to our stories in real life. But that doesn't always happen in fictional versions of them, either.

Lewiston Sun Journal

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Kids’ Book Review: ‘Mercy Watson is Missing’

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Mercy Watson is Missing

Mercy Watson is Missing By Kate DiCamillo Illustrated by Chris Van Dusen

Yikes! Our favorite porcine wonder, Mercy Watson, went missing! Mrs. Watson was crying and Mr. Watson was so very upset. They contacted the fire department and were told, “We don’t deal with missing pigs.” They contacted the animal control officer and she said, “I don’t deal in missing pet pigs.” They contacted the police and were told, “Missing pigs are not a police department matter.”

What to do? The Watson’s neighbors on Deckawoo Drive, Frank and Stella Endicott, Horace Broom, and Baby Lincoln help the Watson’s search. Of course, Eugenia Lincoln does not help; she is wildly joyful, playing the accordion and dancing a jig because she is happy Mercy is missing; she does not like our porcine wonder one little bit.

After no success in their search, the Watsons hire a private detective, Percival Smidgely…but…does he know what he is doing? Can he be trusted?

Will the two men who see Mercy on the side of the road chase her, catch her, and feast on pork for supper?  Will she be found?  If so, where? And if not, will this be the end of our delightful adventures with Marcy Watson?

Enjoy reading this junior fiction selection, Mercy Watson is Missing , Volume 7,  by award-winning author Kate Dicamillo. The delightful, colorful pictures of Mercy and the characters in the Deckawoo Drive neighborhood are the artwork of our own Maine award-winning illustrator, Chris Van Dusen.

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Laurie Klein uses new poetry collection to relive, relieve family secret

For 60 years, Laurie Klein has been holding on to her family’s secret. Now, she is letting it go.

Her new book of poetry, “House of 49 Doors,” is her cathartic way of releasing this secret, not out of disrespect for her family, but out of love and loyalty, “albeit misplaced loyalty, because I made a promise 60 years ago not to tell,” Klein said.

But “after I shut it all away, I did not realize how much it was still harming me. It has been this underlying menace I didn’t realize I was carrying.”

“House of 49 Doors” is about Klein’s childhood home, a sorrowful time in her family’s past and a 60-year-old promise.

This book is narrated by Klein’s younger self, referred to as Larkin, and Elder Girl, Klein’s present-day self. Both narrators take the reader by the hand and lead them through Klein’s memories, which poetry is more equipped to describe than expository or narrative writing.

“With poetry, it allows me to condense three years of experience into small, vivid, compelling bursts,” Klein said. “It’s coming out the way memory does, in little scenes, and it isn’t all linear and chronological, we remember imperfectly, so we get glimpse and echoes and tracings.”

Klein used poetry to soften the blows of the locked-away memories.

“There’s a music to it,” she said, “and when you’re telling a sad story, if it has some music in it, that too makes it easier, makes it more accessible, and more pleasurable.”

Klein’s narrator, Larkin, is curious and kind and helps the reader see the world and the things happening with “stubborn hope and relative innocence.”

According to Klein, using a child’s perspective helps “undercut the tragedy to make it bearable.”

Elder Girl gives the reader an “occasional reality check and furnishes little detours that tap into the kind of discernment that has been so hard won over the years,” Klein said.

Elder Girl is the necessary step of understanding and accepting in the healing process that is “House of 49 Doors.”

As a child, faced with a dark reality, “I just locked all that away in a really deep basement. Sub-sub-SUB basement,” Klein said.

For 60 years, Klein couldn’t talk about or even look back on what happened for fear of revealing the secret and breaking her promise.

With the help of Larkin and Elder Girl, “I was able to go down the stairs to the deep dark basement and crack open the door and really look at it all,” she said. “It was not only cathartic, but deeply healing, and I feel changed by having done so.”

Because of the healing this writing has caused for Klein, she said she feels her younger self coming into the light again.

“She is more present in my life,” Klein said. “I hear Larkin’s voice in my head from time to time. It makes me laugh out loud. I feel lighter.”

Although her childhood was marred by what happened, Klein still looked back fondly on her dear childhood home.

“It’s a pretty sad story, but I still had a very privileged childhood in a big old wonderful rambling magical house.”

Her house had such an impact on her childhood that it is the structural base upon which her entire book rests.

“I divided the book into sections: the premises, shotgun hall, street level, clothes chute, stairwell, half-flight to the next story, attic, roof.”

Throughout her book, Klein uses Larken’s childlike wonder and “delight to relive different places in the house and the stories that go along with them,” which is why she is giving all her proceeds from her book to Habitat for Humanity.

“That house sheltered me through so much trauma, and we all deserve shelter, warmth, safety, water and light, as well as delight.”

On Sunday, Klein will be launching “House of 49 Doors” at Colbert Presbyterian Church. She will be reading excerpts from her book, and anyone who donates to Habitat for Humanity will receive a free book.

By writing this book, Klein has come to terms with her family secret, and she can finally let go of the past. As for that family secret? Only readers of “House of 49 Doors” will be let in.

“Now I don’t feel like I’ll ever be haunted by the details again, because I looked at it all. It was graphic and grizzly, but it doesn’t seem to have the power to horrify me anymore,” Klein said. “I had to relive it so as to relieve it.”

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John McMurtrie on the State of the Book Review

From the write-minded podcast, hosted by brooke warner and grant faulkner.

Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is currently in its fourth year. We are a weekly podcast for writers craving a unique blend of inspiration and real talk about the ups and downs of the writing life. Hosted by Brooke Warner of She Writes and Grant Faulkner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), each theme-focused episode of Write-minded features an interview with a writer, author, or publishing industry professional.

This week’s guest is John McMurtrie, the esteemed former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle’ s book review section. Join us as we explore the transition of book reviews from traditional media like TV and radio to online outlets like Amazon and Goodreads. His is an interesting take about how things were and how things are, along with insight about what a book reviewer is looking for when considering what books to review. Join us as John shares valuable insights on breaking into book reviewing and what he considers to be the key elements of a great book.

Subscribe and download the episode , wherever you get your podcasts. 

________________________

John McMurtrie has worked as an editor and writer for more than three decades, and from 2008 to 2019 was the books editor of the San Francisco Chronicle . He is now an independent book editor and a senior editor at the San Francisco-based literary journal Zyzzyva . John also edits for McSweeney’s Publishing and the literary travel magazine Stranger’s Guide . His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and Literary Hub.

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